Back to Basic
The last 20 years has ushered much profound changes in terms of social, cultural, economical as well as industrial transformation. Especially with the recent impetus of digital disruptions, brought about by technology advancement which is becoming faster, smarter and more expansive in nature, the role and value of education has once again shifted its gear back to basic, that is, the humanistic soft skills.
Today’s Work Place is Highly Automated, Computerised & Self-contained
In UCSF, we believe education today has through the path of the recent trajectory, placed a lot of its emphasis on specialisation, or towards developing specific industrial skill set due in large instituted by automation, computerisation and the lack of skilled or know-how workforce. But today, the recent work place scenario has changed to one where many of the processes are digitised, highly integrated, self-contained and managed with accuracy and efficiency by algorithms. This new scenario has changed the game for the new age work force.
Today’s Employees Need to be Life-long, Life-wide & Life-deep Learners
Today’s work place is less routine and less manual in the traditional manner, migrating into a more service and quality orientation. These entails that today’s work force needs to have the capacity to learn new functions, assume or play new functional roles (most likely as a result of promotion). They also need to be highly agile and motivated in expanding their know-how, i.e. in the sense of knowledge as well as knowledge-required to be able to handle multiple fields of expertise more than a smart device. The human work force needs to be a good listener, good planner, problem solver, resilient to constant environmental changes, adaptable to new tools, be very flexible, open and resourceful as well as to be good ethical decision makers. Instead of just being life-long learners, they need to be life-long, life-wide and life-deep learners.
| It is common to hear a lot of our youth always saying; “I am not a leader,” or, “I am afraid of presenting to strangers.”
The Innate & Dormant Transferrable Skill Needs to be Actuated
It is common to hear a lot of our youth always saying; “I am not a leader,” or, “I am afraid of presenting to strangers.”
To overcome this mindset, apart from the emphasis in building knowledge and skill set relevant to the passion of our students, a very significant part of our teaching-learning process is geared towards building confidence, capacity expansion or generic skill development. These so-called transferrable or survival skills need to be actuated to develop and grow rather than being left dormant and hidden. We believe the catalyst of rebuilding these innate capabilities is through the creation of an appropriate and conducive eco-environment which is well supported and focussed towards enhancing the development of transferrable skill through experiential learning.
Doers Rather than By-standers
Education in UCSF is about gaining the specific job-knowledge as well as generic life-long skill set. As a result, inculcating these so-called generic transferrable skills is a critical part of UCSF’s education process and the Centre of Languages and Generic Department (CLGD) is bestowed the challenging mission to nurture the students to be dynamic, creative and capable of taking practical and global steps toward solving contemporary and global problems in the unique eco-system which we have at UCSF. To this end, our students will be active and strategic doers rather than be mere intelligent by- standers.
The courses offered by CLGD will concentrate on the 21 st century transferrable skills, which are aimed towards developing the humanistic soft skills and cultivate positive cultural attitude among our students.
Critical Thinking Skill
The digital age has created an environment where access to information is a democracy. As a result, the ability to engage and decipher information become a critical advantage to be a member of a modern society. Critical thinking entails skills for analysis, assessing arguments, inferring conclusive evidence, evaluating and making judgements to support constructive and decisive decision making. It is imperative upon any education system to realize it if its goal is to create a thinking human talent/employee.
Exploratory Skill
Coupled with critical thinking is the need to recognize the importance of the drive for exploration. It is another portent hardwired human natural leaning to discover and make sense of the world he/she lives in. We can trigger the inquisitive aspect of the mind through design tests and incite questions which are multi-level and multi-disciplinary in nature to validate data, information and facts, thereby establishing relationships or even to create and nurture novel ideas.
Problem Solving Skill
How often do we hear problem solving as a core competency which today’s employers are seeking and recognising highly? Problem solving is a core skill which involves the ability to engage a problem, identify suitable strategies, methods or ways towards resolution. It not only involves cognitive skills such exploratory, critical thinking and creativity, but an affective driven commitment as well as the added social or soft skills such as communication and collaborative skills.
English/Language Communication Skill
English is globally accepted as an important international language. UCSF places considerable emphasis in our students gaining the ability and confidence in using the English language. The courses at UCSF are conducted in English and part of the effort to enable all our students to achieve a level of effective proficiency. This is carried out through a blended learning approach leveraging on a brain-based language learning system named as DynEd.
In addition to the English language, UCSF also from time to time offers other language courses including Korean, Japanese, Mandarin and French.
Media Communication Skill
Effective communication is paramount to convey thoughts, ideas and messages. Communication technology is driving a diverse change in the way we interact, communicate, learn and teach. Thus, it is necessary to master the different communication techniques offered by the different media technology. The proliferation of media tools today offers a much richer and more interactive way of communication for 21st century students, and graduates and they are expected to be able to select and apply the most effective means of media for their communication approach.
Quantitative Skill & Data Literacy
A large part of our daily life and decision making process today are influenced by quantitatively-driven information. As the saying goes, “data is powerful,” therefore, data literacy is not only about being able to decipher data but also to be able to apply, interpret and communicate the meaning behind the numbers in a simple and effective manner. Our intent is not to introduce complicated maths or formula, but for our students to be able to extract and create meanings from the ever growing and accumulation of data or at least to be able to infer strategic conclusions from charts and graphs.
Customer Service Skill
We are believers of good customer service because we find this skill intriguing. Apart from encompassing the skills highlighted above, customer service skill, among others the art of attentive listening for it engages intently one’s awareness about his/her actions, or even behaviour.
Conscientiousness and disposition are human qualities that need to be sustained to be green. Green, in the context of UCSF’s Green Concept and Philosophy, is about being altruistic, inclusive, harmonious, interdependent and interconnected.